Saturday, May 28, 2005

You Can't Make This Stuff Up ...

The press turnout for a May 23 Q&A with President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai was poor, but administration imagemakers came up with a novel response.

They backed the room with interns posing as reporters.

"That way it wouldn't look bad for the cameras," a White House insider told John McCaslin for his "Inside the Beltway" column in the May 24 Washington Times.

"A member of the press corps we spoke to yesterday equated reporters at such staged White House functions with 'props,'" McCaslin wrote. One reporter told McCaslin: "Since we can't ask questions, why schlep over there?"

The way McCaslin describes it, the result was a little ridiculous.

"(Y)ou had all these fresh young faces -- pretty blonde girls, and guys who haven't shaved -- nodding their approval as the president speaks."

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You have to wonder what Bush's reaction was to all those subservient "reporters." You know, those imagemakers might be on to something ...